Arthur the King: A Romance

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Orion, Dec 8, 2011 - Fiction - 304 pages
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A thrilling and highly original retelling of the Arthurian legend with a twist!

It is the aftermath of the Roman occupation of Britain. Kings are now jockeying for position, for title, for land and for power. A young boy confounds the most famous knights of the realm when he pulls a jewelled sword from a cleft in a stone and claims the throne left vacant by the death of Uther Pendragon.

In this new vision of the Arthurian story, Camelot is set on the River Tweed and Merlin who disapproves of his knights' yearning for battle and their quest for the Holy Grail. With great humour and energy, Massie has created a bold and original new tale from the stuff of legend.

From inside the book

 

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At theback of thestory lurks the mysterious figure of Merlin. (He was by some accounts lurking in the churchyard too.) And Merlin takes some explaining. Who was he? Whatwas he? Geoffreyof Monmouth, author ofThe History of the Kings of ...
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Well, then, this is the story of Merlin as Geoffrey tells it, and of how he rose to prominence. It happened in the daysof King Vortigern, a Roman citizen belonging toanold British royalfamily, who had raised a rebellion against the ...
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Then, as Geoffrey hasit, thelad Merlin approached theKing andasked why he and his motherhad been brought there. Vortigern relayed the advice hehad received from his magicians, with some relish for hewas, men say, one of those who ...
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Some, ignorantly, term Merlin a mere magician, a practitioner of the most vulgar forms of the occult arts; and indeed, it is in this guise that the ridiculous Geoffrey displays him. Others, more imaginatively, state that he was a Druid, ...
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It was Lycas, formerly the bedfellow and lover of Marcus, now his closest friend and most loyal follower, who brought the boy Merlin to Marcus's attention. He had noticed himsoonafter his arrival at the palace,and felt aversion, ...

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ARTHUR THE KING

User Review  - Kirkus

Historical novelist Massie unrolls the familiar knightly yarns with some fresh, unusual twists.Offering a vaguely postmodern take not merely on Arthur himself but on the whole of British history, the ... Read full review

Other editions - View all

Arthur the King
Allan Massie
No preview available - 2003
Arthur the King: A Romance
Allan Massie
No preview available - 2011

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About the author (2011)

Allan Massie is the author of seventeen highly praised novels, as well as non-fiction works on Muriel Spark, a study of twelve emperors of ancient Rome, a history of crime in 19th-century Edinburgh and the acclaimed Glasgow: Portraits of a City. Born in Singapore in 1938, he was brought up in Aberdeenshire and educated at Glenalmond School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the Booker Prize. He is also a journalist contributing to the Scottish and English press. He is married, has three children and lives in the Scottish Borders.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Arthur the King
TitleArthur the King: A Romance
Volume 2 of Dark Ages
AuthorAllan Massie
PublisherOrion, 2011
ISBN178022270X, 9781780222707
Length304 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Fiction / General
Fiction / Historical / General
  
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